I stopped, dead in my tracks, when I saw a scarf draped over a hand rail. I hauled myself into the boat, almost falling before regaining my footfall. I heard Boyd landing heavily behind as I fumbled with the keys. The larger key fitted perfectly and I pushed open the door and found myself in the galley with a smart sitting area. I quickly scanned for any sign of Dagmara, relieved that she wasn’t there. Every cupboard door and compartment had been wrenched open. A small cupboard by my feet underneath the table had its contents strewn on the floor and I fingered the second key in my pocket before sliding it smoothly into the lock. My heart sank.
At the far end of the galley was a small doorway. I pushed it open before descending down the small flight of stairs. In front of me were two doors and I pushed the first open to find myself in a spotless bathroom that was larger than the one in my flat. I could feel my pulse beating on both sides of my neck; my head was pounding. I pushed the second door.
I gasped. Dagmara was lying on the bed, perfectly still, her dark hair falling over her face. I almost fell as I stepped over towards her and sat on the side of the bed, taking her arm, and feeling for a pulse as I pulled her close. I wrapped my arms around her, wanting to hold her close as I’d done during the nights I’d spent in her bed. I felt helpless, as though a part of my body had died. My chest pulled and heaved and I felt the tears pouring down my cheeks. I tried convincing myself that it wasn’t really happening. That we’d have other nights where I’d feel her body next to me and taste the warmth of her lips.
I drew her hair to one side and ran a finger over her face; it was cold and it startled me. I wanted to scream at someone, at anyone.
I heard a noise behind me – then I turned and saw Boyd looking at me from the doorway.
‘I’ll call CSI,’ Boyd said.
I was still holding Dagmara in my arms when he returned. It felt like seconds but I knew it was longer. He said something but I didn’t pay attention. I tightened my hold on Dagmara as if the intensity of my grasp would change things, alter time itself.
‘CSIs on their way, boss.’
I heard Boyd but said nothing.
‘It’s a crime scene, sir. We should leave. We need to find Frankie and Lech.’
It must have been the names that prompted my mind into some sort of clear thinking. I laid Dagmara back on the bed, stood for a moment choking back the tears, and left.
* * *
‘Is this a good idea?’ Boyd said.
I stood by the bar in The Captain Scott looking at the vodka in the clear glass that the barman had left alongside the half-pint glass of Brains. All I could think of was the fact that Dagmara was dead because I hadn’t been careful enough. I hadn’t taken the time to think things through. I should have told her not to get involved. I should have insisted…
I ran my finger over the condescension on the beer glass. The mere sensation of doing that brought back memories I’d long forgotten. How the first drink tasted so good… And promising myself it would be only one…Then laying on the floor with puke all over my clothes.
I’d never see Dagmara again. Never feel her skin against mine or her breath on my lips. I pushed the change over the bar and lifted the glass a couple of centimetres.
Jackie would often arrive at this point and force the glass out of my hand. It never worked and I’d go back to the bar and order another and another.
‘What now, boss?’
I heard Boyd, but I wasn’t listening. He raised his voice.
‘Don’t fuck about, sir. We’ve got to find Lech and Frankie.’
It must have been hearing Boyd swear that made me look at him. The vodka glass was still in my hand.
‘They’re probably in some bolt-hole that Frankie keeps a secret.’
I put the glass down onto the bar, but my fingers couldn’t quite release their grasp as I thought about the address Terry had given me. My pulse quickened; I scribbled the address onto a beer mat and thrust it at Boyd who looked bewildered.
‘You go back to Queen Street,’ I said, walking out of the bar. ‘Get a countrywide alert into the system. We’ll need the Armed Response Unit for this address, as soon as.’
‘You’ll need to talk to the Super,’ he said, as I closed the car door.
* * *
A dark, empty feeling hung in my mind as I crossed over Cardiff for the comfortable suburbs in the north. The knowledge that I’d never see Dagmara again had left a raw ache that was turning to anger, and then a fierce rage that I had to find Lech and Frankie before they could kill someone else, particularly Anna. It felt as though I had so many things unsaid, with everyone; but with Dagmara there was no second chance. Stopping by traffic lights I fumbled for a handkerchief to wipe away the remains of the tears that had scoured my face.
Most cities have a clear divide between rich and poor, ethnic and indigenous, and Cardiff was no different. The docks and south of the city had the council flats and terraces and then from Roath Park the houses got bigger and the gardens longer. But larger houses didn’t mean less criminality, just cleverer people willing to take risks. The sort of risks that got them photographed in parties with young girls. And wealthy people able to pay for the sort of protection and support from the likes of Frankie Prince who supported their charities and then collected when it mattered.
And then the likes of Anna came along and seduced Dagmara and Maria into believing that she could really conquer evil. I thumped the steering wheel so hard it shook.
I braked hard to avoid a car turning out in front of me while winding my way through Albany Road. I blasted the horn at every lorry that delayed my journey. Then I dialled Cornock’s number and after a couple of rings he answered.
‘I need the Armed Response Unit authorised immediately. Boyd’s got the details but I’m certain I know where Frankie Prince and Lech are going to be.’
‘You’d better be right about this, John,’
After the bustle near the centre of town, the traffic thinned and the roads widened. I slowed the car, hoping I wouldn’t be noticed. Eventually I parked at the edge of the road. I could see the house; lights shone from the upstairs windows and the front gates were open. The street was quiet and I opened the window a couple of inches, enough for the smoke of a cigarette to escape. I was reaching for my lighter when the passenger door opened and I saw the toothy grin of Janek smiling at me. Then he pointed a pistol at my head.
Chapter 40
I had learnt never to argue with a man pointing a gun. Now, I was in a room with four men, all with guns. And I was tied to a chair, a habit I definitely wanted to kick.
A long table was pushed against the far wall; concealed spotlights cast a clean white light over the large room. It was vaguely familiar.
Anna sat on the floor, duct tape stretched tightly over her mouth, sweat beaded on her face and her eyes darted around the room. I could see she wasn’t going to hold it together for very long. I hoped that we wouldn’t have very long to wait.
Boyd would have finished with Cornock by now and the ARU would have had their instructions. Like most forces, the Wales Police Service had a team of specially trained officers ready to respond. There would be five, maybe more, in the team, all using Heckler and Koch semi-automatic carbines, issued and signed for with a specific number of rounds. There would be clear instructions as to when lethal force could be used. But I knew they had a problem. They had no idea who was inside the house, or its layout, and if it turned into a siege then things might get messy.
Frankie sat by the table, focusing on the laptop open in front of him and which was connected to an external hard drive. Lech stood over him, holding a gun and Janek stared at me with a fixed smile. Kamil leant against the far wall, cradling a gun.
Lech turned towards me. ‘I thought we leave you dead for sure,’ he said evenly.
‘Take him with you,’ Frankie said. ‘Nobody will miss him.’
Lech stepped towards me. ‘And who helped you escape from Barzak?’
My min
d was racing. My heart thumping in my chest. I had to get them to stay until the ARU arrived. I had to make sure I could arrest Lech and Frankie. I had to be able to tell Michal’s family that we’d caught the men who’d killed their son.
Lech prodded me with his gun.
‘The man who helped you is a dead man.’
‘Did you find what you were looking for?’ I said, frantically wondering how I could delay them.
‘Mr Policeman.’ Lech prodded me again. ‘How did you find this place?’
‘We need to go,’ Frankie said, looking at his watch.
‘I know. Maybe we take you back to Poland. We have place in one of the forests where we take our friends.’ Lech said.
Janek snorted. Kamil just stared.
‘And we take this girl back to Poland too. Maybe we have fun,’ Lech said.
Anna blinked frantically.
‘Why kill Markus?’ I said.
‘He very good and tell us code before he died. Michal very clever. He had taken much information from Frankie’s computer onto the hard drive.’
I was counting the time in my head – had it been half an hour or more since I’d left Boyd? How long would the ARU take to get here?
‘And why kill Maria and Leon?’ I was making conversation, hoping that Lech would talk.
‘The whores are all the same. Families want money but when they have to work they want to get freedom.’
Lech walked around the room and he stood over Anna. She tilted her head and looked at him.
‘And this one.’ He kicked Anna’s shin. ‘Useless piece of shit.’
She grimaced in pain. And then he turned his back on her. ‘And did you find your Polish whore?’ he said, staring at me.
My wrists strained at the rope and the chair moved forward a couple of inches. ‘You fucking bastard.’
Lech snorted.
I heard some noise on the first floor and then the sound of young girls talking, laughing and joking. Then it struck me why the room seemed familiar. It was in this room that Wing Commander Bates had been photographed, champagne in hand, lusting after a fourteen year old.
‘I need to protect investment,’ Lech continued.
‘That’s why you had Kamil poking around all the time?’ I asked.
Lech shrugged his shoulders and smiled the sort of smile a man might make when he was contented with life.
‘My friends back in Poland are very pissed with you. Barzak was good man. Good killer. He killed ten men with bare hands.’
Then I said the first thing that came to mind. ‘There’s another copy of the hard drive.’
‘He’s wrong,’ Frankie said.
Lech came to stand in front of me. The jacket had a herringbone check running through it and the cloth looked expensive. It was the first time I’d noticed his face up close and he had two large lumps on the right cheek.
‘How do you know?’ he said.
‘Maria told me.’
Lech leant back, scratched his jaw and the lumps wobbled. He was thinking about Maria. I was counting again in my head, waiting.
‘I speak to Maria too. And she say lots before we take her tongue out. After that she speechless.’ He smiled; Kamil and Janek laughed right on cue. ‘But she tell me truth and when I ask her about the hard drive, she say only one. So, Mr Policeman, you wrong.’
‘It’s in the same place as the photographs in the camera that Leon and Maria had.’
Frankie raised his head and looked over at me. I had his attention now.
‘Don’t listen to him,’ Frankie said.
Lech narrowed his eyes and said something in Polish to Janek.
‘You can’t take that chance,’ I said, getting into my stride. ‘I found the photographs from what Maria told me and now—’
‘Shut the fuck up, Marco.’ Frankie was rattled.
There was a noise behind me in the passageway. Lech turned to look at the door, his eyes troubled.
The next few seconds happened in a blur, like a slow-motion scene from a Western movie. The door opened and the colonel burst into the room. He was dressed in combat fatigues, as was Tomas behind him. They had pistols already at chest height. I saw Janek getting up off the table and reach for his gun, but the colonel fired two shots and Janek’s head exploded, blood and flesh flying everywhere.
Lech had stepped back towards the table and picked up the gun near the computer. Kamil had his feet wide apart and as he pumped two, then three shots, into Lech’s head, there was a loud thud as the giant body crashed to the floor.
Frankie didn’t have time to hide the sheer terror on his face.
He stood for a fraction of a second with the gun in his hand, Lech on the floor by the table and Janek’s blood splattered all over his white shirt.
Two shots rang out and then Frankie’s body heaved upwards in a twisting motion, as the force of the bullets dragged his body towards the wall, already covered in Janek’s blood.
My heart was beating so fast it was likely to tear out of my body.
Kamil came over and untied me. I fell off the chair as two more men in combat dress filed into the room, carrying body bags. I got up and fell down again. My legs were like jelly but I got over to Anna, untied her, and carefully took off the duct tape.
She started crying and shouting and after a couple of seconds she took off her fleece and tossed it aside. I sat down on the floor next to her and pulled her close.
The air was thick with cordite and the hot smell of blood and flesh.
I watched as the colonel and his men dragged the lifeless bodies of Lech Balinski and Janek into the bags. Kamil stood by his side and they started talking and looking at their watches.
‘Have you always been working for the colonel?’ I asked, as I thought about Kamil’s attempts to get information from us.
Kamil narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly.
‘How long do we have?’ the colonel said to me. ‘Backup is on its way, yes?’
I wanted to say – yes, it fucking is and then I’ll arrest the whole fucking lot of you. But I settled for a nod and a mumbled confirmation. It took four of them to move Lech’s body. Once they’d got the body of Janek out of the house, the colonel stood in the middle of the room with the hard drive in his hand.
‘This is what we came for,’ he said, tapping the metal box in his hand.
He pulled the door closed behind him. I bent down and cradled Anna’s face in my hands, staring at her intensely. She was still sobbing as I gave her clear, precise instructions.
Chapter 41
When the Armed Response Unit crashed into the room, Anna started to scream again. Then she seemed to notice Frankie lying near her feet, his head shot to pieces and she put her hands to her eyes and drew herself into a ball.
Boyd followed the ARU officers, his body armour tight against his chest. He stopped for a moment and looked at the carnage in the room.
‘What the fuck happened?’ he said, and then immediately, ‘Are you all right, boss?’
I nodded, but said nothing.
Boyd continued. ‘This is a crime scene, sir. We need the CSIs here.’
It was going to take some time explaining this to Boyd, but he was right and he made the call. Alvine would love this, I knew. Three different DNAs and only one body.
Other officers streamed into the room. I could hear footsteps running up the stairs, voices on the first floor and shouts for assistance. A woman police officer appeared and knelt down, covering Anna with a blanket before getting her to her feet and taking her outside.
I was on my feet by the time the ARU team leader, a thin, wiry sergeant with a heavy jaw and deep-set eyes strode towards me. ‘Are you responsible for all this blood?’ His tone was almost complimentary.
‘Call an ambulance,’ I said. ‘And the pathologist.’
‘I’ve got protocols to maintain and reports to write. If you’ve discharged a firearm, Inspector Marco, I need to know.’
‘I was unarmed.’
&nbs
p; ‘So this is a crime scene.’
‘Yes.’
He looked at the blood on the wall and on the floor. ‘Looks like more than one victim.’
‘It’s a crime scene.’
He hesitated. ‘So who’s the SIO?’
‘I am.’
He narrowed his eyes. ‘What can my team do to help, Inspector Marco?’
‘There are young girls upstairs that need to be taken to safe houses, then interviewed through interpreters and their families contacted. And they need to be treated as human beings. I need family liaison officers on duty to help – and get social services involved and any other fucking agency you can think of that might be able to help these girls.’
He barked instructions into his radio as he left the room. Boyd was at my side as I walked outside. Anna was huddled under a blanket when a car arrived and they left for headquarters. The cool October weather was fresh on my skin. I thought about a world without Frankie Prince or Lech Balinski. Boyd was coordinating the work needed on the crime scene. Paddy MacVeigh arrived and gave me a long, hard look and emerged minutes later.
‘What the hell happened in there?’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘Going to the Bluebirds game next Saturday?’
I hadn’t thought about football for days. I hadn’t thought about anything except work for days. I didn’t even know who they were playing.
‘I’ll buy you on orange juice and you can tell me all about it,’ he said.
I nodded.
My last cigarette had been cut short when Janek pointed a gun in my face. Now I took my time to enjoy a smoke. Maybe I had even got down to less than five a day. My mother would be pleased.
Alvine Dix was the next to arrive and from the look on her face she’d heard what had happened. She squeezed out what sympathy and concern she was capable of, but I could see she was finding it a trial.
‘Are you all right?’ she said.
I nodded again and pulled on the cigarette. ‘It’s a crime scene.’
‘Frankie Prince in there?’
‘Shot in the head. Lots of blood and guts.’
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